


Heartbeat

by erryday24carrots



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Don't tell Space dad, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits? Kinda?, Idk how Galras shower okay, Issa Secret shhhh, Keith and his Mom, Keith has a family, Let this boy be loved, M/M, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Praise Kink, They're not together but they're together, angst if you squint, post season 05
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-03-27 09:12:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13877763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erryday24carrots/pseuds/erryday24carrots
Summary: "And now he stood there under the spray, the heat of the water finally burning away the dirt and dried blood he’d never gotten the chance to rinse out earlier. And that’s usually how it went when he returned: Keith would come back to the Castle, get a hot meal, head to the showers, and then-The door opened, exactly the way it always did. Quietly, and then nothing. No footsteps on the tile towards the benches or the stalls. Just nothing, like whoever opened the door is just standing in the doorway, staring at the stall that Keith had purposefully not closed the curtain on. Staring at Keith."~~~~~Lance and Keith are in a secret...something. Not a relationship, because Keith and vulnerability? No way. Lance and commitment? Unheard of. All they do is fool around a bit, just to let off some steam every now and then, okay? As long as they keep their emotions in check and the team none the wiser, nothing can go wrong.Right?





	1. Home Again

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this originally because I wanted a bit of tender Klance smut, but I've decided to take it a bit further I guess? For some context, I wrote this before Season 6 and obviously before the whole space-whale adventure Keith went on with Krolia. I'll hopefully get a chance to clean up the timeline in later chapters. Anyways, this chapter contains some good ol' tender lovin', and then later some specifics on how their whole...situation came to be.
> 
> Anyways. Enjoy.

Keith hummed as he stepped under the spray. The water running down his body was scalding, reddening his skin, steam licking his cheeks and dancing in his nose and around his neck. Keith liked hot showers. He liked when the burn was just enough to seep into his pores and sit there for a while, fingers pruning. Just enough to almost make the scars and bruises and gashes rise off of his body like the steam and float somewhere else. Away.

Keith hadn’t had a hot shower in a very long time.

The Blade has showers. They have very large, open room showers with shower heads lining the walls and a large drain in the middle, like a high school locker room. Or a prison. Keith knew the Blade members didn’t purposefully try to make their showers look like earth prisons or locker rooms and probably built them that way for efficiency purposes, but that didn’t stop him from making the comparison every time he stepped into the showers during his time there. Also, apparently Galrans preferred cold showers, because not only did they only use cold water, but his fellow members would also poke fun at him for shivering under it.

Keith usually was confident in his body. He wasn’t huge like Shiro, although he had built up some pretty decent muscle during his time at the Garrison and as a paladin. However he had never felt more self conscious than when standing in that shower room, easily 3 feet shorter than the shortest Blade there, shivering under the three streams of water shooting out of the shower head.

So when Kolivan had told Keith it was best for he and his mother to return to the Castle of Lions to become acquainted with her better, the first thing his mind had thought of was getting a long, hot shower.

Well, that’s not true. A pair of blue eyes might have made a brief feature, but that was no one’s business but Keith’s.

_“Really?” Keith asked. “What about the missions? What about_ her _mission? I thought that always came first..?”_

_Kolivan kept his eyes glued to the large monitor in front of him, fingers tapping away at whatever folder he was decoding._

_“Keith, when I was a kit of only 9, my mother was slaughtered in front of me by a Galra recruit soldier. Every day I think about who I could be if I had more time with her,” he turned and looked at Keith. “We live dangerous lives. You deserve to be a kit with your mother, if only for a brief period.”_

_Keith stared at him with wide eyes, and stuttered. “Oh I...I didn’t - I mean I’m sorry I don’t - “_

_Kolivan huffed a breath. “I know I come off as a...cold person. Believe it or not I can still exercise empathy, when I want. Go home. Take Krolia with you. I will alert you when it is your time to return to continue your training.”_

Keith felt himself smile just the slightest at the memory. He and Krolia had taken a small pod with the Castle of Lion’s coordinates in it and just...gone. Keith had expected the journey back to be awkward, and it was a little, at first. But then she had cleared her throat and said:

_“Um, so. Do you...do you speak Texas like your father?”_

Keith had burst out laughing, and she had looked panicked for a moment before laughing with him, shakily, like she hadn’t in years, and they sat in their pod and laughed until Keith’s laughter broke into sobs, relieved, angry, tired sobs, and she pulled him into her by the back of his head and he cried into her shoulder until he, for the first time since he could remember, fell asleep in his mother’s arms.

And the team had gone crazy when he returned, for a couple of reasons. One, Keith was home, which he hadn’t been for over a month, so the first thing Hunk did when he saw him was break his ribs in a crushing hug, which was surprisingly nice. Pidge and Allura and Shiro gave him normal-people hugs, which was also nice, singing relief that he was safe and how glad they were he was home. Coran ruffled his hair with a smile, going on about how he upgraded this and that and how he thought Keith would like it. Matt was apparently upstairs with -

“Wait, _what_?”

“Yeah! We found my dad!” Pidge said, jumping up and down, hair bouncing. Keith gave her another hug.

“I’m so happy for you guys,” Keith said, smiling sincerely. And then a loud, obnoxious, beautiful voice rang out from down the hall, and Keith froze.

“Hunk, buddy, your oven beeped I think your cookies are-“ Lance also froze when he walked into the common room to see Keith standing amongst everyone else.

“Keith?”  
“Lance.”

And he’s not sure who ran towards who, or maybe they ran at the same time, but then he was falling into Lance and it didn’t even matter, because Lance felt solid and real, and his jacket smelled so _good_ , and he was sighing shakily into Keith’s neck. It couldn’t have lasted more than three seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Keith immediately missed him when they pulled away from each other. Lance cleared his throat.

“Good to have you back, dude,” he said, trying for nonchalance and failing. At least, to Keith. He felt a small smile settle into his face despite trying not to.

“Good to be back.”

A throat cleared behind him and he turned to see Krolia step fully into the room from where she had been watching from the doorway. She looked as if she felt out of place and didn’t know what to do with her hands or who to speak to.

“Hello,” she said to the room. “Uh. I am Krolia.”

“Ah!” Allura said. “You must be the Blade member Kolivan was speaking about. You are here to collect the samples from Olkarion, yes? Will you be staying with us or shall I prepare-”

“Actually,” Keith interjected, “she’s with me.” He walked over to stand by her side, trying to give her a comforting look. He took a deep breath. “This is my mother.”

After a lot of “Oh my god!”s and “No way!”s and “It’s great to meet you!”s it was decided by someone that Krolia and Keith deserved a good meal and some good rest, and it was only then that Keith realized how hungry and tired he was. So they were walked to the kitchen and fed (Is this meat, Keith? Where did your friends find meat?) and then Keith led her to one of the large guest rooms on the level above the paladin rooms where she would be sleeping. She hugged him goodnight, and in any other situation Keith would have pushed her away, but this time Keith found himself relishing it.

“Also,” his mother said into his hair, “the blue one is nice. I see why you like him.”

Keith groaned.

And because Keith had been thinking about a hot shower since Kolivan had told him he’d be going home, he had headed straight for the showers after leaving his mother’s room. And now he stood there under the spray, the heat of the water finally burning away the dirt and dried blood he’d never gotten the chance to rinse out earlier. And that’s usually how it went when he returned after months with the Blade: Keith would come back to the Castle, get a hot meal, head to the showers, and then-

The door opened, exactly the way it always did. Quietly, and then nothing. No footsteps on the tile towards the benches or the stalls. Just nothing, like whoever opened the door is just standing in the doorway, staring at the stall that Keith had purposefully not closed the curtain on. Staring at Keith.

Keith continued to face the wall, softly soaping over his shoulders, acting none the wiser, because sometimes he liked to be stared at.

And then quiet footsteps on the tile. The sound of fabric rustling, hitting the floor. More footsteps, hesitating just outside of the raised tile of Keith’s stall. He raised his hands to run his fingers through his hair. A soft sigh sounded somewhere behind him. Keith waited.

And then hands were snaking their way around his hips, resting on his abdomen, and Keith’s eyes fluttered closed. A chest pressed to his back, a nose breathing him in behind his ear. Lips gliding softly down his neck. Keith shuddered and raised his arms until his hands ran through soft hair, letting his head fall back onto a shoulder. A shaky breath rattled against his collarbone.

“I missed you,” Lance sighed.

Keith smiled and turned around to face him, wrapping his arms around his neck, pressing his body close, staring into those eyes that own him. He pressed their foreheads together.

“I missed you too,” he breathed, and then Lance was kissing him after what had only been about a month but felt like years. Soft and slow and thick, his lips dripping with honeyed relief that Keith brought into his mouth and sucked on. They kissed languidly, contently, taking each other in. And then Lance was slipping his tongue into Keith’s mouth and Keith was moaning because he _missed_  this. He missed the softness of Lance’s hair. He missed way he would rub slow circles into the dimples on his back. He missed the secure feeling of being wrapped in Lance’s arms, like he didn’t need to be so solid, stand so tall, because Lance would do it for him.

Lance began to trail kisses across Keith’s jawline, then down his neck, gently sucking on the skin there before huffing quietly and raising his head to look at Keith.

“You taste like soap.”

Keith laughed and pressed his face into Lance’s neck, smiling. He loved this, loved every second of it, loved feeling Lance’s heart beat against his chest and the water beat against his back. He wanted to stay like that forever, pressed up against him, warm and secure with Lance’s arms wrapped around him. His knees felt weak.

“You’re really tired, huh?” Lance asked.

“Mhm,” was Keith’s response.

“Want me to clean you up, love?”

Keith felt his cheeks redden at the name. “Mhm.”

“Okay. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

And Lance was so gentle. He always knows when to be gentle with Keith. He lathered shampoo into his hair and rubbed at his scalp, laughing when Keith wrinkled his nose at the conditioner he added on.

“Keith you could have such great hair if you would just let me condition it every now and then.”

He washed his body, running his hands over his chest and abs, slowly, loving the way Keith’s eyelids fluttered when his thumbs barely brushed over his nipples. He rubbed the rest of the grime away from Keith’s back, fingers dancing over the muscles as he felt the tension melt from them. Keith giggled, actually _giggled_ , when Lance grabbed his ass, squeezing softly, soothing over and pressing into the muscle. He whimpered into Lance’s shoulder when he felt his fingers dip between his cheeks and brush over his hole, running the water over it smoothly.

“Shh, later Keith. We’ve got time,” Lance whispered in his ear.

He continued to wash down his legs, pausing briefly to wash in between them too, not even in a sexual way, just attentive. Caring. He washed the back of his knees and his feet (Why are you laughing, Keith? Foot hygiene is very important!) before standing to rinse them both off once more. Keith tugged Lance against him again when he tried to reach over to turn the shower off.

“I’m so happy,” Keith mumbled against Lance’s chest. Lance chuckled.

“Me too,” Lance dried them off ruffled Keith’s hair in a towel, chuckling at his pout, then wrapped him up in his blue robe before pulling on his gray sweats.

“How come I get the robe?” Keith asked.

“Because,” Lance grabbed his hand and led them towards the door, “I knew you’d forgotten to bring pyjamas. And you look all cute in it.”

 After making sure no one was awake and wandering the halls, they snuck into Keith’s room, hands clasped together and smiles soft. As soon as the door was closed Keith collapsed face first onto his bed, sighing and enjoying the smell of Altean laundry detergent mixed with Lance’s cucumber scented lotion and slightly smug about that meaning Lance had been sleeping in his bed. He heard Lance laugh before falling next to Keith, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him against him, letting out a long exhale, pressing his face against his neck. He seemed content just like that, but Keith’s a little shit no matter how tired, so he wiggled his hips a bit against Lance’s groin.

“Keith,” Lance murmured in warning, “you’re tired remember? I thought you wanted to sleep.”

“I want you first.”

“I think you need to get some rest.”

Keith whined and wiggled his hips some more, and Lance made a noise in the back of his throat, and Keith knew he was winning. He knew he had won when he felt Lance roll his hips against his ass. Lance kissed the back of Keith’s neck.

“Is there somethin' you need, baby?” Lance asked. Keith rolled his eyes but grinned as he turned over to face him, nodding. Lance pressed a slow, sweet kiss to Keith’s lips, rolling him onto his back, sliding between his legs and attaching his mouth to Keith’s neck, sucking a little mark into his pale skin.

Keith’s arms wrapped around Lance’s shoulders and made their way into his hair as he continued down Keith’s body, pulling the robe open, his mouth latching onto a nipple and flicking at it with his tongue. He reached up and rubbed at his other nipple with his thumb, pinching a little bit, before switching sides. Keith let his eyes fall closed, little hiccups of pleasure bubbling from his throat with every kiss and mark Lance pressed to his chest, his abs, his ribs.

“So sensitive.”

Lance looked up at Keith, hands hovering over the drawstring of the robe, and just paused to stare at him. Kiss red lips, flushed cheeks, mussed hair, Lance’s robe falling off of his shoulders. Lance had never seen anything more beautiful in his life, never wanted to have anything else but this. And part of him, the scary feelings part, wanted to tell him that, but he new it wasn't the right moment. Not yet. Lance let his gaze trail up to meet Keith's again, a silent question. Keith nodded at him, and he pulled the drawstring and opened the robe to see Keith’s pretty, swollen cock resting against his hip. Keith had been wanting this, and it showed.

“Look at you,” Lance said instead, pulling Keith’s legs apart and kissing the inside of his thigh, “so beautiful.” Keith preened at the words, like Lance knew he would. So he kept talking.

“You’re always gone for so long, you forget what it feels like to have me like this, in between your pretty thighs.” Another kiss. “You look so gorgeous from this angle, baby. All flushed and pink.” Another kiss, and Keith squirmed. “So open, love how you spread your legs for me.” Another kiss, this one closer to exactly where Keith needed his mouth to be. He normally would hate the way he sounded, how easily anyone could hear how flustered he was, but right now he was too tired to care. So when Lance finally licked a long stipe up his cock and sucked the head into his mouth, Keith let out a filthy, breathy moan that shot straight to Lance’s dick.

He continued like that for a few minutes, sucking him off slowly and listening to the little moans dripping off of Keith’s lips. Running his tongue up and under the head, swirling around it before taking as much of him as he could into his mouth. And Keith laid there gratefully and took it, smiling like the cat that got the cream, black hair haloed around his head on the pillow and mewling when Lance licked his way down his perineum and blew gently over his pink hole. Keith bit his lip in anticipation; he looked delectable, and Lance just wanted to eat him up.

So he did.

Soon enough Keith’s hole was puffy and swollen from Lance sucking on it, Keith himself squirming on the bed, grasping at the sheets and letting out these gorgeous little pants with every lick and twist of Lance’s tongue. Lance pushed his way inside, fucking Keith slowly with his tongue and relishing in the way Keith’s hands pulled at his hair. His mouth danced to Keith’s continuous chanting of Lance’s name. Lance reached up without taking his attention from Keith's hole and pressed two fingers to Keith's lips, which were promptly brought into his mouth and sucked on.

At one point when he pushed his tongue as far as he could into Keith, pressed his lips flush against his hole and hummed, Keith actually cried out in a drawn out, dirty moan around his fingers that had Lance rolling his hips into the mattress. He paused his ministrations and glanced up at Keith, bringing his hand back and slowly pressing a finger into him. He began the steady push and pull before sucking a bruise on Keith’s inner thigh.

“Keith,” he said, finger slowing even more. Keith whined, longing for stimulation, mouth hanging open beautifully and cheeks flushed, eyes squeezed shut.

“Keith, baby. Open your eyes.”

His eyelids parted, and Lance was reminded that even at his most vulnerable, Keith’s eyes were never anything short of intense. Pupils blown, burning.

“You want me to take care of you tonight?”

He nodded slowly, keening.

Lance turned to Keith’s other thigh and sucked a twin bruise onto that one. “Tell me what you want. I want to give you everything you want.”

Keith practically purred, and drew Lance back up to him, capturing him in a long, drawn out kiss. Keith swallowed Lance’s moans and the way he tasted, loving every part of it.

“I want you,” he murmured against his lips. “Want you to touch me,” he sighed into his mouth. “Want you inside me,” he moaned as Lance gently bit his jaw.

He adored the way Lance was with him, how much he cared, how much he wanted him to be happy. Adored how he knew when Keith needed to let go, to just be taken care of, adored how he always did. Keith felt the telltale burning in his eyes as tears began to pool under his eyelids, feeling completely overwhelmed with emotion for this boy and not knowing what to do about it. “Want you to stay with me,” he whispered shakily. “Please.”

At that Lance raised his head to look at Keith, surprised to find a tear roll down his cheek, and heartbroken at the desperate look on his face. Eyes squeezed shut, brows creased, lip caught between his teeth like he was doing everything in his power not to let all he was feeling crumble his walls from the inside. His hands gripped at Lance’s shoulders like he was afraid he would fade away. Lance leaned over him, wiping his tears away.

“Look at me.”

Keith looked into Lance’s blue eyes, the eyes that owned him, the eyes that read him like a book. The eyes that measured everything. The eyes that light every room, the eyes that find beauty in every heart, the eyes that find beauty in Keith’s. The only eyes he’s ever looked into so deeply and been truly content with the reflection that looked back.

Lance took one of Keith’s hands and placed it over his chest. Keith felt his heartbeat: steady and rhythmic and comforting.

“I will always, _always_ be right here.”

And whatever remained of Keith’s walls just disappeared. They didn’t break. They didn’t crumble and fall. They just ceased, like they had never been there in the first place. And Keith supposes that for Lance, that’s exactly the way it needed to be.

“Oh, Keith.”

Lance leaned down and kissed him softly, stroking his cheek, so tender and sweet and Keith felt another tear trickle down his face. Lance continued to kiss him languidly, his hand lowering to gently nudge his legs apart and whispering sweet things in his ear.

“I’m right here.”

A kiss.

“Let me show you.”

Another.

“I’m not going anywhere, love.”

Keith was whimpering again under Lance’s touch as his now lubed fingers circled his hole, and he cried out as one slipped inside and curled. Keith clutched at the back of Lance’s head, and Lance murmured encouragements against his jaw, nibbling his ear. He pumped his finger slowly, in and out, a gentle rhythm to get Keith comfortable with the pace and girth. He pressed a kiss to his temple as he slid another finger in, pushing them just short of that one spot -

“Ah! Lance! Right there-” Keith’s nails dug into Lance’s shoulder but his head was spinning too fast for him to feel guilty about it. Lance began to slowly scissor his fingers, pushing them in and out of Keith at a torturous pace, just barely grazing his prostate on each thrust. Keith groaned and tried to push his hips against Lance, thrusting up in search of relief, aching for Lance to go deeper, faster, anything. Lance instead slowed his hand.

“Shh, Keith, we have time. I’m staying with you baby, I’m right here. Let me take care of you, okay?” Lance uttered, leaning his forehead against Keith’s. Keith shuddered and nodded.

“Okay.”

He doesn’t know how long they stayed like that, Keith on his back, legs open for Lance as he laid on top of him and stretched him open. Maybe ten minutes. Maybe an hour. Lance fucked him open and sucked more love bites into the skin on his neck, humming his encouragement and smiling against his collarbones as Keith mewled squirmed under all the much needed attention. All Keith knew was that he had never felt more relaxed and he was immensely grateful for Lance’s long fingers. He wrapped a hand around Keith’s dick and began to stroke at the pace of his fingers, and every time he heard Keith moan out a warning, a quick, “Lance, I-I’m gonna-” he would stop, slow it down, and start back up again.

Three fingers and what felt like an eternity later, Lance pulled his fingers out and shifted himself to better fit between Keith’s legs. He ran his hands over the backs of Keith’s thighs, pulling his hips up so his knees were almost touching Lance’s shoulders. Lance slicked himself up generously, lining himself up, the head of his cock just brushing over Keith’s hole when he glanced up to look Keith in the eyes again. Keith gave a little nod, and then Lance was kissing him and pushing into him at the same time.

And even with the extensive prep and the generous amount of lube used, the stretch still burned a little. Keith hissed as Lance sunk into him slowly, thrusting ever so slightly, and waited for the pain to melt into pleasure. And melt it did, because as soon as Lance finally bottomed out, Keith was a shaking, whimpering mess, weakly thrusting his hips up for any form of relief, begging Lance to move, _please_.

So when Lance suddenly pulled all the way out only to push back in at a glacial pace with a guttural moan, Keith let his head fall back and his mouth hang open as he gasped out Lance’s name.

He fucked him deep and slow, just the way Keith liked it. Keith held on to him and rolled his hips up as best he could to meet his thrusts, wanting to be closer, arching to feel Lance on every part of his skin. He loved it, loved being so full, loved the slick glide of in and out that came with each delicious thrust. Loved how thick Lance was, how he made him feel stretched and filled up, loved the roll of his hips as he buried himself inside Keith and stayed there a moment before continuing with his previous pace.

"I've missed you so much Keith," Lance groans into his neck. "Missed you, missed the way you feel around me...a-ah, fuck..."

As his paced picked up, Keith brought Lance’s face up to meet him in a searing kiss, one that said so many things but also maybe didn’t. Maybe just lying here, safe in the Castle, in Keith’s room, in Lance’s embrace, they could just kiss and have slow, heart pounding sex and not worry that it could be one of the last times. Maybe just for now, Keith could lie here and know he would do this forever, would do anything, always, if it meant making this boy happy, if it made Lance want to be with him. Maybe one day, Keith would have the courage to tell him that.

"Missed your smell," Lance moaned, "missed your voice, mmh, m-missed your everything. Mmh, Keith, baby..."

As the pace picked up even more, so did Keith’s breathing. He knew his face was flushed, knew Lance was drooling over the sight of him right now, legs open and perfectly content with taking it. Filthy moans escaping swollen lips and fingers playing with one of his nipples as Lance pounded into him. Keith knew he was being loud, knew he was risking possibly waking up the rooms down the hall, but didn’t have it in him to be concerned.

“Lance, ah… ah! Lance… I’m close,” he wasn’t even sure what he was saying, head dizzy with pleasure as Lance looked down at him in awe, his eyes reflecting what seemed to be every emotion Keith could feel in his chest.

“I know, me too,” he panted, leaning over him again to kiss his cheek, wrapping his hand around Keith’s cock again and stroking in time to his thrusts. “You feel so good love, so good. You take me so well, doing such a good job, baby.”

Keith preened and moaned louder.

"You're so beautiful, Keith, so pretty."

He was _so close_ , he just needed -

“God, Keith, you're _everything_.”

Keith saw white, eyes rolling and mouth hanging open in a silent scream as his orgasm burned through him like lightning, clutching at Lance’s shoulders as his back arched off the bed with his release, his cum shooting onto their chests, toes curling, hole clenching around Lance’s cock. His whole body shook with it, and he felt when Lance came too, pressing his hips flush against Keith’s, groan ghosting over his collarbones as his cock twitched, pulsing his release inside of Keith, filling him up. They both went slack at the same time, limbs going limp, panting against each other as they came down from their orgasmic highs.

When they could both breathe normally again, Lance gingerly pulled out, both wincing at the oversensitivity of the action. He gave Keith a chaste kiss before whispering “Be right back,” and slipping into the small bathroom. Keith nodded, eyes already drooping, and laid there completely blissed out until Lance returned a moment later with a damp cloth and a pair of blue boxers.

He took care of Keith. Lightly lifted him up to remove the now lube and cum covered bathrobe that Keith had been laying on, then wiped Keith down and cleaned him off before sliding the blue boxers over his legs to settle on his hips.

“These yours?” Keith mumbled.

“Yeah,” Lance said, smiling softly down at him. “You look good in blue.”

Lance cleaned himself off and pulled his sweats back on, then nudged Keith over to lie down beside him. He opened his arms up and, just as he expected, Keith rolled over to nestle into his side, head resting on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Lance wrapped him in his arms, feeling finally complete, like that’s exactly the place Keith was supposed to be: close to his heart. He pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

“Sweet dreams, Keith,” he said into his hair.

And then, Keith felt his heart do something. It felt a little bit like when you’re almost asleep and your body jerks awake because your heart feels, _knows_ that it’s falling. Except different, because Keith had already fallen. Keith had long since hit the ground.

_I love you._

The words fluttered around like smoke in his head, and he was too tired to do anything about them but they were too important for him to brush off for another time. So he cuddled closer to Lance, exhaled, and let the words sit on his tongue. He didn’t speak them out loud, but he liked to think that maybe, Lance’s heart could hear it in the pulse pounding in Keith’s fingers as he settled his hand on Lance’s chest.

_I love you._

_I love you._

_I love you._


	2. A Gentle Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wakes up after a night of fantastic, comforting sex with a lot on his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is real short! It's more just to connect where I'm taking the story next. Bear with me!
> 
> Alrighty, so. This is just the morning after the first chapter, after the Castleship had landed itself on a planet sometime in the night. In case you couldn't tell, the first two chapters are a look into the paladin's lives now, and the chapters following will be more focused on how exactly Lance and Keith began this whole...thing in the first place, so expect a lot of flashbacks. Hopefully the angst can be put on hold after this chapter and I can write some more fun stuff :)

Keith could always tell when they were on solid ground compared to when they were in floating somewhere in space. Everything about the air in the Castleship felt fuller, less stiff. Sounds could be heard outside sometimes. His body felt a bit heavier and more grounded, depending on the gravity of the planet. Being on solid ground was nice usually, especially in these moments before Keith knew exactly where he was.

His whole body was warm. Not sweaty and overheated, just cozy. Everything that the Blade’s dormitories were not. There was something warm underneath him, and something warm next to him, and something warm on top of him. The light on the other side of his eyelids was a bit brighter than he would have liked it to be, and that was truly the extent of Keith’s knowledge concerning his current location. He kept his eyes closed and cuddled closer to whatever the warm thing was next to him, heaving a content sigh and shifting his hips.

_ Ow, fuck. _

Keith’s hips ached something fierce when he moved them, why in the absolute fuck was that? Brows furrowing, he shifted his leg a bit only to find that his hamstrings were also aching, and when he tried to twist a little to relieve some of the pain he discovered his back panged with soreness as well. It was something familiar, a kind of pain whose source was on the tip of his tongue but at the tail end of his brain, especially since he had just woken up and hadn’t even  _ thought _ about coffee yet. He cracked an eye open in order to finally figure out where the hell he was. And while he wasn’t necessarily surprised by what he saw, the sight still took his breath away.

Lance was the warm thing that he had pressed himself into, streams of light pouring through the window from the sun of whatever planet they were on illuminating his features in a heavenly glow. His bed head was tousled adorably, messy and curled at the ends in the way Keith knew Lance would hate when he looked in the mirror later, even though Keith preferred it this way. His long, pretty lashes rested calmly against his cheekbones, casting gentle shadows against his tan skin. His slightly swollen lips were parted, almost a curve of a smile on his face, breathing softly. Keith knew that on a planet with this much sunlight, Lance’s freckles would make a debut within twenty minutes of being outside. Lance would see them later and complain about how uneven they looked or something, and Keith would kiss the ones on his face, and the little ones on his neck, and the ones on his shoulders because Lance always smiled when he did that. And Keith loved Lance’s freckles. 

Keith loved a lot about Lance, lately.

Including, but not limited to, Lance himself.

_ Fuck. _

Lance inhaled deeply and his eyelids fluttered a bit before opening, and Keith realized he must have said that last part out loud. He contemplated briefly pretending that he was still asleep so that Lance would hopefully follow suit, but then he looked at him with those eyes and Keith found he didn’t want to close his anymore. Or ever again. Lance gave a soft smile. 

“Hi,” he murmured. Keith found himself returning his smile.

“Hey,” he replied, voice still rough with sleep.

Lance blinked at him slowly before leaning his head down just the slightest, planting a sweet kiss on his lips that slowly blossomed into something more open mouthed, something long and languid and lazy, everything Keith loved in a morning makeout session. Keith’s hand slid itself up from its place on Lance’s chest and up, up his neck, tangling in those adorable curls. Lance’s arm slipped down his back and around his waist, pulling him closer to his chest, and Keith winced at the ache there. Lance pulled away.

“Sore?” he asked, a cocky grin on his face and concern in his eyes. 

“Mm,” Keith replied, pushing Lance onto his back again so he could lay his head on his shoulder, nose pressed to his neck, hand pressed to his chest so he could feel his heartbeat through his skin. Keith sighed deeply. “I’ll work it off in the training room later,” he mumbled against his neck. He felt more than heard Lance’s huff of laughter, and could imagine the way he must have been rolling his eyes at Keith’s intention to train his post-sex soreness away. Lance laced his fingers through the ones Keith was using to trace patterns into his chest, taking a deep breath and letting it out before burying his nose into Keith’s hair and closing his eyes with every intention of falling back asleep.

Keith, however, stayed awake, thinking.

Thinking.

Thinking about Lance. Thinking about the hickey he was looking at on Lance’s neck that he’d left there last night. Thinking about how last night, Krolia had  _ actually hugged him _ and told him that she liked “the blue one”. Thinking about Krolia in general, how they’d found each other somehow in the vastness of space, in the vastness of war. Thinking about war, thinking about Voltron, thinking about what the next step was with the team, what the next step was with Lance. 

Thinking about how a year ago, Lance would have already left before the sun had risen. Thinking about how now Lance had tucked Keith into his side, arm snug around his waist, any thoughts of separating far, far away. Thinking about how every time Lance looked at him, every time he shot him that smile or laughed that laugh, Keith sunk. He sunk and sunk and sunk and now here he was, lying in bed with the absolute love of his life and despite the fact that they were pressed together, there were about a million and one things that stood between Keith and his ability to tell him that.

And as Keith stared at this boy he loved, he couldn’t help but wonder,

_ How the hell did it get to this? _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to make the next few chapters more funny and light, and try to incorporate some classic "Uh oh, feelings" mixed with "Uh oh, horny" because who doesn't love two awkward boys with pent up sexual desires to catch feelings for each other? Anyways. I suck at writing so the next update could be next week or about two years from now. Good luck.
> 
> (Also @ the people who have left me comments: I love and cherish each and every one of you tysm)


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